For 15 years, Rose Martinez lived in what she considered a regular house in a regular suburban neighborhood.
It wasn’t until three years ago, when Martinez decided to spruce up the old place, that she learned just how old the place was. While sorting through family documents for the house, she discovered the house dated to 1881 and sits in what now is a designated historic district on Elgin’s east side.
“It was just a plain, big gray house, nothing fancy about it,” said Martinez of the two-apartment, asphalt-sided Folk Victorian that she shared with her husband, four children and in-laws during the 1960s and ’70s. She now rents the house to a daughter and a friend.
“It was just a nice family home in what to me was just a regular neighborhood,” she said. “We never thought about the history.”
She then realized her plans to re-side her house and replace its windows were going to require more approvals than the basic city permit. In Elgin, as in many other municipalities, an appointed board reviews exterior changes to designated historic properties to ensure they are compatible with the character of the district. Whenever anyone wants to renovate, alter, demolish or build anew in a historic district, commission permission is required before a building permit can be issued.
Gaining approval for renovations can be a headache. Owners often find themselves spending more time and money than their non-historic house counterparts on documenting their design, researching historical and architectural references and on materials and craftsmen. And there is always the chance of rejection, which means revisions, more applications and more costs.
For instance, replacement windows usually must be wood-framed, a pricier alternative to the aluminum-clad variety. Vinyl siding is a no-no. Original fretwork and porch balusters often must be saved or recreated. Even gutters, chimneys, front doors, garages, fences, rooflines and driveways can be put under scrutiny.
“Overall, a historic house costs more to renovate, there’s no doubt,” said architect Michael Menn of Design Construction Concepts in Northbrook, which has worked on old house remodeling projects from Chicago’s Gold Coast to Lake Bluff. Menn said having to match original details, which often include hand-crafted wood, means costs quickly add up.
When contemplating changes to a historic house, homeowners should first check with their municipality to see if special requirements apply and find out whether any guidelines apply to the house’s inside too, said Menn, who sits on the Remodelors Council of the Home Builders Association of Greater Chicago.
“I cannot stress that enough,” said Menn, adding that historic house owners who ignore guidelines run the risk of being forced to redo renovations.
In the case of Martinez’s renovation by Valentine General Contracting in Elgin, the asphalt was removed to reveal wood siding, the porch was restored with 60 handmade spindles, new wood-frame windows were installed, and the house was given an historically inspired paint job.
“It would have been cheaper to install aluminum windows, but the point is keeping things to the original appearance,” said Martinez. “The guidelines are the guidelines.”
Still, many homeowners don’t mind the extra work if it ensures that their neighborhood’s historic homes will have greater protection against demolition and decay. Also, in many cases, there are property-tax breaks and grants available to historic homeowners. Martinez qualified for a City of Elgin grant that reimbursed nearly half (up to $10,000) of her architectural rehabilitation.
“If a rehabilitation is well done, it enriches our lives,” said architectural historian Susan Benjamin of Benjamin Historic Certifications in Highland Park.
Homeowners who have tackled a renovation of their landmark properties say they often must balance two sometimes opposing goals: They want to update their home so it suits their 21st Century lifestyle yet maintains its historic integrity.
That’s the case with Jordan McDermott and his wife Lydia, who are adding a rear addition to their 1865 landmark farmhouse in Chicago’s Norwood Park neighborhood. The addition, designed by Airoom of Lincolnwood, includes a new farm-style kitchen, a mudroom, laundry and master suite. The McDermotts say they wanted to preserve the old-house look but update their home to suit them and their four children.
The McDermotts’ renovation plans underwent some adjustments, including a change to the roofline, after they were examined by the permit review committee of the Commission on Chicago Landmarks.
“Looking at the front of the house you would have seen the new roofline jutting out from behind,” McDermott said, saying an upstairs bedroom wall was tucked in 2 feet in order to meet standards.
A decorative roof railing was rejected because it was deemed too ornate, and the McDermotts intended for the exterior window trim on the addition to match the original on the house’s front. The committee said no.
“They wanted people to be able to look at the house and separate the old from the new,” McDermott said, saying a similar but simpler trim was installed instead. “That actually saved us money.”
To preserve the old-house charm inside, Airoom designer Darin Collings suggested planning new rooms in the same scale as the originals and installing antiqued or distressed cabinets, wood trim that matches or is similar to the original, reclaimed wood for floorboards and air-conditioning systems that don’t require soffeting.
“You do feel a little responsible when you own a historic house, you’re not going to spoil it with a rehab that hasn’t been well thought out,” Jordan McDermott said. “We did incur more of an expense, but we wanted the old-house look and knew (the expense) was coming.”
Judy Herbert, who with her husband, Bob, is renovating their 1923 Dutch Colonial Revival in the Northeast Evanston Historic District, advises historic homeowners “to approach projects slowly and carefully.”
She and her husband started by researching the house’s history and discovered their house was built by local civic leader Thomas Leahy, a founding father of Evanston’s park district.
As empty nesters, the couple was attracted to the 1 1/2-story house for its original first-floor bedrooms and bath, unusual for the period, Judy Herbert said. But the home, which they bought in 2002, needed work.
“The house was rather neglected,” said Herbert, describing a shabby rear screened porch, spongy bathroom walls and a kitchen dating to the 1940s. “It was in need of someone who cared about it.”
The Herberts craved more natural light and garden views than the kitchen delivered and are in the process of a remodel that will include a new screened porch with a skylight and a brighter kitchen designed with a 1920s flavor. They toyed with the idea of a family room addition but decided against it.
“So many people now have to have a large family room,” she said. “Houses like this particular one were not meant for a family with small children. We don’t need a family room, and we hope to live here for many years, so we finally decided, `Let’s not worry about that.'”
To ease the approval and renovation process, the Herberts hired Stuart Cohen & Julie Hacker Architects of Evanston and builder Arthur G. Nelson Inc. of Wilmette, both of which have extensive experience on historic house projects, Judy Herbert said.
Susan Benjamin helped the Herberts obtain an 11-year property-tax assessment freeze, which their landmark home qualified to receive because their renovation followed federal preservation guidelines and met a spending threshold. Benjamin, who with Cohen co-authored “North Shore Chicago: Houses of the Lakefront Suburbs, 1890-1940” (Acanthus Press, $77), led them through guidelines, offered suggestions and prepared the tax-freeze application that was approved by the state’s preservation agency.
“It helps working with professionals who know the ropes,” Judy Herbert said. “It costs a heck of a lot to rehab. Ours is not an authentic restoration but we’re trying to do everything within our means to be appropriate to the period.”
Despite the expense and hassles, the results of a carefully planned historic renovation can have its rewards. Martinez, who owns the reborn house in Elgin, couldn’t be more pleased with her old place’s transformation.
“We had a birthday party there for my granddaughters and some guests drove right past the house,” Martinez says with a laugh. “They didn’t recognize it.”
